By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis Now| Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Photo credit: ATP
It’s On.
The Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) dropped a bombshell lawsuit against the ATP, WTA and ITF today.
MORE: Djokovic-Led PTPA Files Lawsuit Against ATP, WTA and ITF
Now, the ATP is firing back.
In a statement, the ATP blasted the PTPA claims of corruption as “entirely without merit” and further knocked the PTPA for trying to attract attention to its cause through “division and distraction.”
“While ATP has remained focused on delivering reforms that benefit players at multiple levels, the PTPA has consistently chosen division and distraction through misinformation over progress,” the ATP said in a statement. “Five years on from its inception in 2020, the PTPA has struggled to establish a meaningful role in tennis, making its decision to pursue legal action at this juncture unsurprising.
“We strongly reject the premise of the PTPA’s claims, believe the case to be entirely without merit, and will vigorously defend our position. ATP remains committed to working in the best interests of the game – towards continued growth, financial stability, and the best possible future for our players, tournaments, and fans.”
Led by Novak Djokovic, investment banker Bill Ackman and Canadian Vasek Pospisil, the PTPA filed a lawsuit in the New York Federal Court and the United Kingdom and European Union on Tuesday.
The lawsuit claims that the ATP, WTA, and International Tennis Federation (ITF) are actively engaged in corrupt business practices that limit players’ ability to earn money and restrict their professional lives.
𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝘅 𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗻𝗶𝘀.Today, the PTPA and over a dozen players, on behalf of the entire professional population, filed a sweeping series of legal actions against the ATP, WTA, ITF and ITIA to reform professional tennis. https://t.co/1r4LWQpopP
— Professional Tennis Players Association (@ptpaplayers) March 18, 2025
Founded in 2019, the PTPA advocates that players should earn more prize money at various tournaments than they are allowed per WTA and ATP rules.
Djokovic said despite the fact the PTPA “were not accepted” by the ATP, WTA and Grand Slams, the organization is gaining traction and financial backing and “needs to live.”
“I think there’s a lot of legal challenges along the way,” Djokovic said in a past interview. “We managed to overcome all those challenges, and we are gathering the right team of people with advisory board, people that are going to help with financing the association, of course people from the tennis world that will help us establish ourselves within the ecosystem, which I think is very important as we were not accepted and embraced by Grand Slams, ATP nor WTA, so it makes things difficult for us, but this association needs to live.”
The PTPA is vital because it’s solely devoted to giving players a voice in the decision-making process that impacts the sport, Djokovic said.
“It needs to be there because players don’t have 100 percent representation in the tennis world, unfortunately,” Djokovic said. “With the association they have that. Hopefully more players will be showing the willingness to understand what PTPA can do for them.
“It’s a process that will take a longer time just because we are not getting credibility from other governing bodies, so it will take longer, but we’ll stay there, and it’s something that hopefully can stay for many decades to come.”
